1963 Cordova, Alaska Inferno

Even a dynamite blast couldn't stop the intense 1963 Cordova Alaska Inferno.

by Michael R Dougherty

It was very early in the morning on May 2nd, 1963 when me, my sister Anna and brother Tom woke up and sensed that something was very wrong.

I looked out a window of our second story apartment and saw people running everywhere. I quickly opened the window and stuck my head out to see what was going on.

A man in the alley below looked up, saw me and shouted, “you better get out of there, a fire is headed your way.” I pulled my head back inside and said to my sister and brother, “there's a fire.”

Just then, our mom, Louise Dougherty, came running in through the front door of our apartment and told us to start grabbing our things and taking them across the street. Mom went on to nervously inform us that a fire had started in the Club Bar and Club Café down the street and was quickly headed our way.

Our dad, Ray Dougherty, was with the other men in town as they all helped the Cordova Volunteer Fire Department fight the fire. In 1963, our dad, had brought us to Cordova to live there while he worked on a road project out of town.

At that time, Cordova consisted of mostly wood buildings, wooden boardwalks and dirt streets. It was a lot like being back in the old west.

So, when a fire broke out, it had a huge amount of fuel to burn.

Our family was living in a small two-bedroom apartment above a downtown bar. To get to our apartment, you opened an outside door and climbed a steep set of wooden stairs to the left. The stairs ended at our front door.

Inside our apartment, we were all quickly grabbing up our belongings and then heading down the stairs before running across the street where we put everything we owned on the boardwalk and hopefully out of the way of the fire.

After I put my first load of belongings down on the boardwalk, I turned around, and what I saw was terrifying.

The fire was roaring and at 16 years of age, it was obvious to me that this was going to be horrible.

I quickly made about two more trips inside our apartment before we were told that it was too dangerous to go back again.

Mom, me, Anna and Tom all headed down the street to stand in front of the North Star movie theater where we were safe from the fire, but we could still see what was happening.

The heat from the blaze became so intense that huge chunks of plywood floated up into the air, and buildings across the street had to be sprayed down to keep from bursting into flames. They even had to spray water over our families belongings.

When the fire reached the hardware store, we stated hearing explosions as the heat set off paint cans and other flammable material. Then word circulated through the crowd that they were going to use a case of dynamite to try to stop the fire.

At the right moment, we were told to brace ourselves for the dynamite explosion.

And even though I was ready for it, the force of the explosion nearly knocked me to the ground.

But the dynamite did not work.

The May 1963 Cordova, Alaska fire burned down an entire city block, except for one building. A bowling alley that had been built using brick and other modern materials. The bowling alley survived and thrived after the blaze.

Shortly after the fire, our family moved into a mobile home in a small park just a short walking distance from town.

A few days after the fire, while things were just beginning to get cleaned up, my brother Tom and I were walking past where the grocery store used to be. The owner was there, going through the rubble, and had come across a can of ham. The fire had cooked the contents, so the owner opened the can and shared the ham with us. Me, my brother Tom and the grocery store owner, all stood there on a pile of ashes, eating ham and looking over the burnt remains of a city block. It was surreal and an image I will never forget.

Just 10 months later, on Good Friday, March 27th 1964, our family was living in Anchorage, Alaska. That was the day of the 9.2, Great Alaskan Earthquake that lasted 5 minutes.

Today, the 1963 fire is but a distant memory. Cordova, Alaska rebuilt, and today, it's a thriving and very picturesque town that's worth a visit.

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